"Operation Lotus" could backfire on Yeddyurappa | A. Jayaram

Published on 01-09-2008 In General

Viewed 1226 times

"Operation Lotus" could backfire on Yeddyurappa

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's "Operation Lotus" and the mass participation of our ministers and legislators in the annual conference of the Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA) being held in Chicago, U.S had over the last three weeks competed with the Beijing Olympics for headlines in Karnataka's newspapers and television channels. If the Beijing Olympics had only 56 competitors from our country, Karnataka is sending more than double that number to Chicago.

The BJP appears to be as much worried as the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) are over its operation to lure opposition MLAs. The Party might have won over some fence sitting MLAs in the opposition, but is finding that it is losing its own workers and even some of its support base.

There is a feeling that the project to rope in defectors from other parties is going too far and the time has come to cry halt to it. However I do not wish to change my stand that the induction into the Party of those who have willingly resigned from the Congress and the JD (S) was inevitable and forced by the harsh reality that the Party (BJP) failed to get a clear majority in the elections. Real politick had to prevail over political morality, if there is any such thing in our politics. The Government could not be run on the possible shifting loyalty of the six independents, all of who are ambitious politicians out to exploit the situation in their favour.

Umesh Katti, JD (S) MLA from Belgaum District is the latest to resign his seat and join the BJP. He was been rewarded with a ministership. It is again a record that the Yeddyurappa ministry, which is yet to complete 100 days in office, has held four swearing-in ceremonies for ministers. Swearing at each other in the BJP has followed the last two swearing-in ceremonies. The Governor and the Raj Bhavan have been kept busy. Since there is a permanent Glass House in the Raj Bhavan, the exchequer has been saved the expense of erecting pandals every time a swearing-in ceremony takes place. But for the 11 per cent ceiling on the size of a ministry imposed by the 97th amendment to the Constitution of India, all the newcomers to the Party would have been appointed ministers by now. Karnataka has 224 plus one MLAs and 75 MLCs and 34 is the maximum number of ministers.

It is unfortunate that the former minister for Horticulture S.K.Bellubbi had to resign to make way for Umesh Katti. The former is an old Party loyalist who had stood by it through rain and sunshine. He had done nothing wrong to be forced to resign. It is stated that some others like the Law Minister S.Suresh Kumar, the Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda, and the Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali as also the Muzarai Minister Krishnaiah Setty refused to become sacrificial lambs to accommodate the newcomers. If ministers like Suresh Kumar and Ramachandra Gowda had been eased out, it would have worsened the problem of mediocrity being faced by the Government. Ministerships, that too of Cabinet rank, have come as a bonanza for a good number of ministers. Many of them should have been appointed as Ministers of State at the most. In the S.M.Krishna ministry, the highly qualified Dr.B.K.Chandrashekar was only a minister of State. So also in the Devaraj Urs ministry, H.N.Nanje Gowda who later became an authority on river water disputes was only a minister of State (Irrigation). Even Ramakrishna Hegde had begun his career as a minister, as a deputy minister under S.Nijalingappa.In the Yeddyurappa dispensation, all are Cabinet ministers and policymakers.

The protests in Bijapur District by BJP workers and members of the public over the treatment meted out to Bellubbi show his popularity.

Those who protested cannot be dismissed as hired crowds .The Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly and KPCC President Mallikarjun Kharge was right in his comment that the exclusion or inclusion of BJP ministers are posing law and order problems. In Hubli, it was the protests over the non-inclusion of Jagadish Shettar in the ministry. There is also meaning in the observation of one of the BJP MLAs from Bijapur District Dr.Bagali Sarvabhouma that the Chief Minister should have asked a minister from a district with more than one member in the Cabinet to resign. It is obvious that he had in mind the overloading of Bellary ore in the ministry-Karunakara Reddy, his brother Janardhana Reddy and Sriramulu. Bijapur one of the first districts in north Karnataka to emerge as a BJP stronghold, should not have been denied representation in the Government. The District has a record of voting against the Congress. Even as early as in 1967, it had elected a Swatantra Party candidate to the Lok Sabha.

The time has come for B.S.Yeddyurappa to cry halt to Operation Lotus. He should declare this far and nothing further. Admission of defectors will create new problems as shown by the Bellubbi episode. To drop any of the five independent ministers at this juncture would be foolhardy. Their role in helping the BJP to come to power, though three short of a majority, cannot be underplayed. As five out of the six of them were Congress rebels in the elections, they could have supported a Congress-JD (S) government.

It cannot be argued that Umesh Katti or any of the new entrants to the BJP would make a better minister than Bellubbi. Katti's performance as a minister in the past was lacklustre. If V.Somanna joins the BJP, he would be setting the record of having been a member of all the three major political parties in the State- Janata Dal (undivided), Congress and now the BJP. He can be called a master craftsman in party hopping. Yeddyurappa has now the added responsibility of getting all the new entrants to the Party re-elected to the State Assembly. The Congress and the JD (S) have vowed to teach them a lesson for their treachery. Even the BJP's rank and file might not be enthusiastic over their candidature in the by-elections.

The BJP itself is vulnerable to poaching of its MLAs by the Congress whose government rules at the Centre and the JD (S). Yeddyurappa should be on guard against dissidence against him growing in the Party. Opposition leaders like D.K.Shivakumar and H.D.Kumaraswamy cannot be expected to remain idle, when their party men are being lured to join the BJP. The Operation Lotus has brought the former bitter political foes, Shiva Kumar and Kumaraswamy together. The JD (S) might change its decision to go it alone in the by-elections, by the time the elections are announced.

The promise of ministership to Umesh Katti as also others by the BJP leaders is an inducement to defect indeed. It is indefensible. The best Yeddyurappa could have done was to appoint them as ministers after their re-election. The time has come for the Chief Minister to announce a cease-fire to Operation Lotus. The people of the State are watching the gymnastics being performed by the BJP to consolidate its government. The silence of the educated middle class over the admission of opposition MLAs cannot be taken as acquiescence. They have voted for change and expect the BJP to govern with a difference. It is another thing that the former MLAs joined the BJP after resigning their seats. They are not defectors in the constitutional sense.

1 Comments

Blog

Print